Aston Villa captain Fabian Delph was asked about the effect losing his sought after teammate Christian Benteke would have on the Villans squad.

His conclusion on the nature of second city life without the Belgian behemoth was understandably bleak:

“It would have a big effect. He is a great player, world-class in my opinion, and a good lad to have around as well. It would be a big loss because he scores a lot of goals.”

Benteke’s 15 goals in 32 league games, including 11 in the final 12 games, were arguably the difference as Villa avoided relegation to the Championship.

But just how dire would it have been for Villa if they hadn’t had him to bail them out?

The 24-year-old’s goals were instrumental in deciding the destination of the points on six of the eight occasions he found the net in the top-flight last term.

As a proportion of the Villa’s 38-match schedule it doesn’t sound like an awful lot, but without them Tim Sherwood’s side would have finished on 26 points, four south of rock-bottom Burnley.

He claimed draws for his side on two occasions, scored three winning goals and in one case turned defeat into victory with a brace against Everton.

Alongside his season-defining goal haul, Benteke also provided a brace of assists.

One played a vital part in the early season success at Leicester’s expense, while the other did likewise in the March derby win over West Brom.

In both cases he netted the other strike in 2-1 wins, meaning that, were the sum total of his direct goal involvements stricken from the Premier League records Villa would have ended up a terrifying 14 points from safety.

Villa are 4/1 joint forth in the Premier League relegation betting for the 2015/16 season.

Thomas cut his teeth in the world of betting punditry writing an illicit blog while seemingly hard at work in the library of one of the country’s foremost seats of learning. Since then he’s been booting in a steady stream of winning wagers across the football, horse racing and boxing worlds for a range of online and print-based publications.

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